Bulgaria's wiretapping scandal

Eastern Europe's Watergate

A GREY Chrysler Voyager van equipped with antennas called “The Catcher”. A former official of the interior ministry who interrupts his 50th birthday party to destroy data on the ministry’s computers' hard drives with a screw driver. A former minister of agriculture wired with recording equipment, presumably attached to his chest with scotch tape, who visits the home of the former prime minister. These are all scenes from the “Bulgarian Watergate”, a wiretapping scandal that could have profound implications for the elections on May 12th.

The story reached its climax on April 26th when the chief prosecutor in Sofia, Nikolay Kokinov, resigned following leaked wiretaps of a conversation between him, the former agriculture minister, Miroslav Naydenov, and Boyko Borisov, the former prime minister. In what observers call a “vulgar and cynical” conversation, the three men discuss a corruption case against Mr Naydenov, absorption of European Union funds, relations with the media and the choice of Bulgaria’s chief prosecutor earlier this year. Mr Kokinov told Mr Borisov: “You chose him, don’t smile now”.

The leaked chat, which raises serious questions about the independence of the judicial system, follows an interview with Mr Naydenov on April 25th where the ex-minister accused the former interior minister, Tzvetan Tzvetanov, who is Mr Borisov’s right-hand man, of illegally wiretapping everyone in the previous cabinet. Earlier this month, prosecutors pressed charges against four former police officials accusing them of wiretapping political figures, businessmen and journalists. According to Mr Naydenov, even Rosen Plevneliev, the president, was a target: Mr Naydenov cited a meeting with the president when the two had to leave their mobile phones in another room and turn on the television to avoid being wiretapped.

Mr Tzvetanov denied ordering any surveillance and instead blamed the Socialist opposition of stirring up the scandal. Mr Borisov went even further: the former prime minister spoke of a “private interior ministry” which is involved in illegal activities and manipulations and is organised by people from the surroundings of Sergey Stanishev, the leader of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP).

The current controversy follows a long tradition of wiretapping senior politicians in Bulgaria including Mr Borisov himself in 2011. The American State Department cites the abuse of wiretapping as one of Bulgaria’s most pressing human rights problems.

The current scandal might have profound implications on the upcoming snap elections following the resignation of Mr Borisov’s government in early February. “The undecided voters now have a strong motive not to vote or to vote for one of the smaller parties,” says Rumyana Kolarova, a political scientist at Sofia University. “While Borisov’s party might lose some votes, it is clear that the opposition, especially the Socialists, will not profit from this scandal.”

Mr Borisov’s centre-right GERB party is currently leading the polls with up to 25% ahead of BSP with up to 19%. According to analysts, the lack of a clear winner and the polarised campaign will make it difficult to build a coalition after the elections and increase the chances of a new vote. The strongest parties after GERB and BSP are the Turkish minority party and the ultranationalist Attack, which both come in at around 5%. The centrist party of Meglena Kuneva, a former EU commissioner, is currently hovering around the threshold for entering parliament (4%) but it could take away some votes from GERB’s periphery in the wake of the scandal, Ms Kolarova says.

The outcome of the election will depend on the undecided voters, which constiture about a fifth of the electorate, according to a recent opinion poll. “The voters of GERB and BSP are like opposing football fans,” says Tihomir Bezlov from the Centre for the Study of Democracy in Sofia. “They cannot vote for the other team and cannot miss the game— that would be treason. Those who will not go to the stadium are the undecided voters.”

Readers' comments

Why nobody is talking about the manipulation of the people? The elections are characterised by a Voting Act that serves only the big corrupt parties and there are serious concerns about the manipulation of the vote with over 1m death souls able to vote.
The media and the agencies conducting the polls are corrupt and ignore the smaller parties of the protests like Glas naroden ('the voice of the people' - party of one popular punk star), Zelenite ('the green', initiators of the protests of Orlov most in the spring of 2012, preceding the protests this year) and DGI ('democratic citizen initiative' - party of some of the leaders of the massive protests before the collapse of the Government). The information system of the vote allows manipulation.
And, last but not least, Boiko Borisov and his right hand that have committed serious crimes are not thrown out of the elections and could win immunity... So the only thing that is sure is more protests!

Wiretapapping and scandals are supposed to act as a substitute for the lack of vision and a meaningful campaign on issues.There is no real debate in Bulgaria on real problems and a dirty campaign is the perfect tool to cover up the vacuum of ideas and personalities to identify themeselves with those ideas and programs.This has nothing to do with the people, with the voters, it's a self-serving tactics for cinical politicians whose aim is only to destroy the oponent, it's a campaign where the most important factor namely the people, is missing!

It is not only a political problem anymore. It is rather a social one since the civil society doesn`t care about wiretapping. People don`t realize the importance of the this scandal.
What kind of country would vote for person who has been involved in such a scandal twice (first time 2011).
Bulgarians are suffering from lack of composure and abitility to make strong decisions.
Hope for better and more diligent government after two weeks.

longhouse, you obviously have something else that is long: your Pinoccgio nose! How are you inventing this big lie? What is the relation between Stanishev and Naydenov? What is your evidence? I would rather suspect that it is intra-GERB people that want to shift the powers inside the party before the elections: remember what Borisov said earlier today that he trusts Naydenov did not take the eavesdropping equipment on him, as Naydenov had visited him at home many times before...

The topics discussed during this private conversation
and the words used ,
a such a Mega Scandal,that it will inevitably end
with sentences(probably prison).
In a democratic country,the political party involved in
a scandal of similar proportions,
would suffer a dead blow !

This is the reverse of Watergate, as the opposition (notably the BSP leader Sergei Stanishev, who initiates the scandal by making a very public "tip-off" visit to the top prosecutor's office)exploits the fact that the allegedly corrupt Ag. Minister Naydenov has been secretly taping Bulgaria's PM. What exactly is the connection between Naydenov and Stanishev isn't clear (not yet) but evidently their involvement in this reverse-Watergate scandal is synchronized.

Trust no one? It is funny that Bulgarian politicians are trying to destroy quickly one thing that takes a long time to grow. Are they shortsighted? Come May 12th, the losers will be everyone on that ballot. We really need some new faces from the left, right and center to come up in the elections after that. People that might know how to work together for the greater good. People that are willing to sacrifice personal and political agendas in order to make Bulgaria a better place. I'm sick of hearing who is to blame and past mistakes! I want to hear about the future. Not a politician-promised future, but I-will-deliver-big-time one. Win our votes or go home!

Wiretapping scandals are commonplace across ex-communist Europe for the simple reason that legal restrictions have not been passed into law and properly implemented. Unfortunately, the region still has regulations from communist times.
For example, in Poland numerous government agencies can use wiretaps and access billing data without prior court permission for extended periods of time, resulting in the highest number of wiretaps in the EU. And the agencies fight any and every attempt to limit their prerogatives, to the detriment of personal freedom and the protection of individual citizens' rights to privacy. It is high time that the European Court of human Rights and the Court of Justice gave binding rulings on wire tapping with a strict time limit for implementation on all member states of the EU.

Strongly agree. The problem is not this particular scandal, but the widespread lack of any notion of decency and fair-play in the Bulgarian society as a whole: given it remains covered, any dishonesty will go. More over, the popular wisdom is that he who doesn't diddle and swindle is a fool, a useless nerd ("bunak", in Bulgarian). This persuasion is the cornerstone of all dealings not only in the field of politics... politics is just the tip of the iceberg.
.
No wonder that almost quarter of a century after the fall of the puppet Soviet regime such a society haven't conceived any promising, working idea for its own betterment. That's why the Kremlin sock-puppet, the so called "Socialist" party is still a strong actor in Bulgarian politics.